SBU Researchers Secure NSF Grant To Test Ancient Fern As Carbon Offset Solution

A Stony Brook University research team has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to investigate whether a fast-growing aquatic fern could offset carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.

The project centers on Azolla, a plant also known as mosquito fern, water fern, and fairy moss that once triggered a global cooling event 50 million years ago.

“This plant has already cooled the world once, so we think that we can harness it to do it again,” said Sharon Pochron, project lead and assistant professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.

During the Eocene epoch, when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reached approximately 3,000 parts per million, Azolla covered vast freshwater surfaces in the Arctic. The fern grew quickly by fixing its own nitrogen through a symbiotic relationship with cyanobacteria, enabling the plant to convert carbon dioxide into sugars and double its biomass every 2.5 days. As the plants died and sank to the ocean floor, they sequestered massive amounts of carbon. Over approximately 8,000 years, this “Azolla Event” helped reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide to 400 parts per million.

The NSF grant specifically allows the research team — Jackie Collier, Liliana Davalos, Jim Hoffmann and Darci Swenson Perger — to expand its models of carbon sequestration and harvesting methods. The harvested fern would be converted into soil amendments, addressing both atmospheric carbon and soil degradation. This aligns with the United Nations’ “4-per-1,000” initiative to improve global soil health by increasing carbon storage.

“This project exemplifies the kind of inventive, cross-disciplinary work that makes Stony Brook a leader in research and discovery,” said Kevin Gardner, Stony Brook’s vice president for research and innovation. “By turning to nature for scalable carbon solutions, our researchers are pushing the boundaries of environmental science and demonstrating the ingenuity and impact that define Stony Brook’s research enterprise.”

Perger, a postdoctoral researcher, is working to optimize the fern’s growth with minimal phosphorus input, which plants require to strengthen roots and stems and is particularly important in producing reliable crop yields.

“The modeling suggests we can optimize this carbon to phosphorus ratio by growing it in a very specific way,” she said. “Maximum sequestration with minimum nutrients basically.”

“We don’t want to be taking away from corn and soybeans to be growing Azolla,” Pochron added.

While the current grant focuses on sequestration science, the team’s broader vision involves developing “Azolla kits” — small, portable bodies of water where the fern would be grown and harvested. Users, like homeowners and businesses, would have assistance from a harvesting robot-like pool skimmer, and interactive dashboards for tracking their carbon capture, similar to solar panel monitoring systems.

The team’s preliminary analysis numbers suggest significant potential. The fern’s dried form is 40 percent carbon pulled from the atmosphere. According to the project’s calculations, covering an area equivalent to 20 percent of Long Island with Azolla could offset all U.S. carbon emissions per year.

The timing of the project coincides with the state of New York’s investment into increasingly energy-intensive facilities to power artificial intelligence and quantum computing hubs, as well as an existing statutory goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels over the next five years.

“We have to be the leaders in this,” Pochron said. “If you think that climate change is important, and it’s something that you want to offset, this allows you to take carbon capture into your own hands.”

The automated harvesting technology — which would remove one-third of the fern mass every 2.3 days — still requires partners for development and additional funding. However, the team envisions installing systems on campus rooftops and green spaces as a working model.

“If we can start local, we can go to New York State and then across the country,” Pochron said.